Him and Her: Prologue
by Jetredgirl
Summary: The prologue piece to my first one shot, Him, and the coming 3rd part, Her. The Fates come to the King of the Goblins and offer him a chance to have what he has always longed for, a Goblin Queen. I had to add this part to glue the other two together as a cohesive concept..at least in my own head haha. Enjoy!


As always I do not own Labyrinth or any characters created for the movie or book, nor do I profit from it. I only play in their world , because it gives me joy to do so! I do lay claim to my goblin friend Skeegly though.

15 years+ before Labyrinth, Castle Beyond the Goblin City:

Jareth, King of the Gobins, Creator and Master of the Labyrinth, was dreaming. Dreams were not common to the King, even though he was a master at procuring and creating mortal dreams, he had been alive for millenia, long enough to become dissatisfied with dreaming himself, so he long ago learned to shut off the need for dreaming his own dreams through magic.

This dream was different.

This dream was not created by the King, but by a source far older and far more powerful than even him, The Fates.

They knew of the King's dream, the one he long ago gave up on fulfilling, the reason why he cut off his ability to dream.

For the King of the Goblins could have anything he desired, create any luxury, fulfill any need with his own power.

Except one.

A queen. A soul mate. Yes, he could glamour and enchant to fulfill desires, but that was not love, True love is given freely, not coerced with magic.

His own kind, The Immortals, were not usually good at this kind of love. For them, desire and passion were temporary emotions, something to be sated much like hunger..you eat, you are no longer hungry, but he was different.

His connection with the mortal realm gave him a view of love, of life, most of his kind could not comprehend. He wanted love. Real love. Someone to share his life.

Now, the Fates are answering.

The Dream:

"Goblin King..." The voice called out... "Jareth.."

"Whaa...?..." The King of the Goblins, asleep in his bed, heard...and followed, in dream state, "Where am I?" All he saw was a muted light and fog surrounding him.. "I must be dreaming, but I do not dream, who has dared call my spirit self into this place?!" The King was angry, as no one would incur his wrath by attempting to get into his head, and play any sort of mind game with with him! "Who is there!" He demanded.

Out of the fog, 3 figures appeared, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. The spinner, the measurer, and the cutter...of course Jareth recognized them immediately, having dealt with the Fates before on occasion..but even they are usually hesitant to challenge The King of the Goblins.

"Why have you brought me here, Fates? I have no current need to deal with you."

Lachesis spoke "Your Majesty...Jareth..you have always served your kingdom and your charge well, so we have decided to give you a gift."

The King narrowed his eyes and he observed the three... "Is this some sort of trick? Have the Gods decided they are done toying with mortals and want to move on to more..challenging ones? I have honored them always, complied with their wishes, but I will resist any and all attempts to toy with MY life, Fates..I am not a hapless mortal, and have the strength to resist even them, they know this."

Clotho stepped forward, "no My Lord, they are rewarding you for your service, truly."

"Alright then, Fates, please enlighten me, what gift, what reward, can you and the Gods give me that I do not have and cannot create?" The King replied, raising an eyebrow..even in dream state his tradmark cynical expression was obvious.

Atropos spoke now... "A Goblin Queen, Your Majesty."

Jareth laughed out loud at this, for he had no desire to take a Queen from his own Immortal kind..they were beautiful yes, good for temporary affairs to sate desire, but they were also only interested in his power..none of his kind were as powerful as him, but he was an honorable man, in his way, he would not let the power that comes with his station to be abused, and he knew what the others wanted...the power to connect and take advantage of the mortal world. While he was not one to dally with mortals beyond his duties, abusing and using them, well, he would not allow that, a little fun toying with the runners now and then, maybe, but those who would make playthings or meals out of humans...that disgusted him down to his core..the last king had allowed such things, he would not.

"There is no one I desire to share my throne with Fates, so while I am grateful to the Gods for thinking to "reward " me, I can take care of my..ahem..romantic daliances on my own, they know, and you know, why I will never take an Immortal queen."

Lachesis spoke again, stepping closer. "Jareth.." "The Kings eyebrow raised again at this casual greeting "Jareth, this is different, it really is, for she will not be Immortal, well, not to start..she will be human born."

The King of the Goblins was truly speechless..marry a human? " Are you all mad?! For one thing, A human would live what, 100 years at the longest? and even then she would be an old woman by 60, why would I have any desire to be bound to an elderly human woman? Even if she could give me a natural child? Even if I could love her? That would be cruel to the children and myself, and her most of all!"

Clotho, a bit short tempered answered him. "Sire, did you not hear my sister? She would only be human born! The Gods would grant her Immortality! Turned like your charges, any children would be born your kind as well!"

"Our kind do not birth children easily Fates, you know this, this is why human children are turned Immortal..this is why I am here at all." Jareth replied.

"Being human born will give her the gift of fertility, those born Immortal do not have, My Lord." Atropos said, always the quietest of the three, albeit the Fate with the hardest job of all.

Jareth considered this, it was true those born human were sought after mates when they reached adulthood for their relative ease at procreating, but turning adults was not allowed..their transformation was too difficult and often came with serious risks.

"I will not marry nor mate with a child, Sisters, that is revolting beyond measure, she will have to be at least the human age of 25 to be sufficiently grown, will the Gods agree to turning an adult?" The King asked, not quite believing he was even thinking of letting this happen...but..a queen! How he longed for a real queen, to not be alone anymore...for a child. The children were always here too briefly, then off to thier new families, and he was left alone afterwards, to long for a family of his own.

Lachesis asked " They already have, and will have a hand in it themselves, as will we, to minimize the usual risks involved. So you agree to this, Your Majesty?"

"I will agree to consider it Sisters, but I have the final say on whether I think the female in question is worthy." Jareth said to them...wondering again why he was agreeing to such an undertaking.

Lachesis replied "You will know her presence from birth My King, but she will prove herself worthy to you in her own way, we know it...we have a soul in mind already, her mother is days from delivering her in the human world. Her spirit is strong, she will be kind, beautiful, and would fight through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered for those she loves...we will create a way she will know of your realm, and she will call upon you when she is ready to prove herself to you, Sire."

The King of the Goblins, ever skeptical, just said to the Sisters as they began to fade, "We shall see Fates, we shall see."

1 week later:

The King was lounging upon his throne, watching his subjects run amok as usual, and thinking of the dream from the week before...how could a human girl rule here? He thought..why would she want to? Sometimes he barely tolerated his subjects..oh yes, he did care for them and protect them, as was his duty..but a human girl? She would be disgusted and put off by the creatures..humans were't known for their tolerance of such things. They were a fearful and superstitious lot.

As he was contemplating all this, he felt...something..a pull...

"Now what?" He said out loud, getting odd looks for a few nearby goblins. "Did you feel that?" He asked them.

Skeegly, a particularly fuzzy little goblin, known for his good hearing, replied " No King...is you being called? How comes we canna hear?"

"No Skeegly, it was not a call, it was more like, a pull..like a thread being tied to me and someone yanking the other end..odd.." Jareth said, the usualy ruckus dying down a bit as the goblins noticed their king acting oddly.

The pull got stonger, and he was compelled to let it lead him where the source was. ""Skeegly, you are in charge, I need to go to the mortal world for a bit, make sure no one sets anything on fire would you?"

"Yes Your Majesty!" Skeegly said to his King, feeling very proud to be chosen. The King stepped to the window, and dove off the ledge, transforming into his owl form and taking flight through the waning light towards the aboveground.

The Mortal World:

Jareth let the pull take him where it began...a human hospital...not a place he desired to go..usually a hospital meant an injured, near death child being wished away, usually injured by the hand of a so called "loved one." The Goblin King sneered inwardly at the thought. As he found a nearby wooded place to land, and transform, unobserved. First into the King, then into a human facsimile, so as to blend in...he made himself as bland an as unnoticable as possible, and walked to the hospital and went inside.

The pull was very stong here, and he followed it, very few even taking notice of his presence...to the maternity ward...to a large window where several babies were lined up in thier little cribs..his heart softened at the sight..."lovely little ones" he thought. The thread was connected...there. To one little crib, where a little dark haired infant lay quietly observing her new world. Looking at the tag on her crib, he observed her name was Sarah..Sarah Williams, born just a few hours ago.

"Not a fusser are you little one?" He said quietly. As if she heard him, her head turned a little and she looked right at him..it seemed, with huge green eyes...green eyes that seemed to know him. Jareth gasped and stepped back.."who is this child?"

Then he heard a voice in his head, the voice of Clotho, he surmised.

"She is your future Queen, Your Majesty." The King, startled, turned and hurried out of the hospital, trying to get as far away as possible. Returning to the wooded area, transforming, and flying back to his castle as quickly as possible.

As soon as he returned to the throne room, he bellowed.."everyone out!" Any stragglers will be bogged immediately!" The goblins, knowing he would make good on his threat, quickly fled.

"SISTERS! I demand you appear now!" Jareth yelled. Lachesis appeared shortly after..."No need to yell Your Majesty."

Jareth was incensed. "How can you think to betroth me to an infant, Fate! I ask again, are you MAD?!"

"My Lord, we told you you would know of her from her birth, you knew she would be born an infant." The Sister, replied, trying to sound calming. "The pull you felt was your thread being tied to hers, being a Immortal magical being, you would feel that, while she of course would not..at least, not yet...obviously you would not be expected to fall in love with her until she is of age...but it is the way of things as you know."

"I do not know if I can deal with this Lachesis, it is...too strange, even for me." Jareth said back, his voice shaking a little.

"Think of yourself as her guardian Jareth, as you will be, after all...she will need you her entire life, even before she knows of you, she will need your care, even in her young human lifetime, she will have much to deal with...but we did listen and agreed, her mother, she is a Descendant, so she carries the Blood of The Ancient Ones within her, to make her eventual transition easier, and her belief strong. We already took measures to assure she will believe...we created a special, enchanted version of the book, for her, given as a gift to her mother, and then to be passed to her."

The King sighed. "Fine, Alright, Fate, I will go along, for now, but if I feel that this..plan...must be done away with, for any reason, You Fates, and even the Gods, must listen."

"Of course, Jareth." Lachesis said as she faded from view.

The King of the Goblins was suddenly very tired.

As the Fates told the King, the girl believed so strongly, he could feel it, stronger all the time, as the mother, Linda, read to her the book, "The Labyrinth" over and over; yes, little Sarah believed. In him, and in his subjects, and The Labyrinth.

Time went on, and The King did his duty, taking wished away children, and sadly watchng the humans try to solve his creation...welll, the ones that wanted to try..unfortunately, all to often, then did not even care to try.

He looked in on the girl, growing so quickly, as human years were like days to the King. He saw the tragedy of her parents' divorce, the sadness in her eyes as she watched her father remarry. Occasionally he would slip into her room and sprinkle a little dream dust over her, to give her pleasant dreams to ease her pain.

Once, when she was 13, she was followed by 2 very evil men in a car on her way home from school...little did they know her guardian was watching, and seemingly, out of nowhere, the car mysteriously lost control and ran into a tree. The man who surived the crash, told a wild tale of a man in black appearing out of nowhere in front of the car right before it hit the tree..but of course, no one believed his story, as no one else saw such a man...shortly afterward, the man, the survivor of the crash, just disappeared, never to be heard from again.

The King would look in on her in the park, reciting lines out of the book, dreaming of being an actress like her mother..her only companion her dog. She was growing so fast, the King thought. Such a child!

Then he felt her despair at the discovery her stepmother was to have a baby, feeling like she would be replaced, and become insignificant. How he wished to dry her tears, but she was still too young. Then the boy was born, and she was angry, and sullen, and every inch an emotional teenage girl. He admired her strength...even her anger..she was a strong one..not to be trifled with. The King liked that.

Then, the night came, but too soon..the night came that she called to him..he heard it, felt it, and dreaded it.

**A/N I'm working on the 3rd piece folks...trying to make sure to tie them together without any loose ends! **

**Note: "The Ancient Ones," in my story are those Immortals who lived among the mortals in a time before prejudice and petty jealousies drove them to the Underground. Those few that stayed, of course, mixed with mortals, had descendants and their blood has the markers of the Immortal race. I do not call them Fae exactly, because although my instinct and Irish heritage tells me that is what Jareth is intended to be, he was never actually labelled as "Fae" so I do not specify.**


End file.
